Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-09-29
THE NORTHWEST
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OHIO.
Looppiahlsd. Au riqhls resared.l
By w.YAAAAxD YE1cH.

CoMER's TOWN.
Christopher Glst, when he visited tn,
Indians in 1851, recorded: Tuesday
January 15-We left Muskingum anC
went west five miles to the White Wo
man Creek. This white woman wa
taken away from New England wheI
she was not above ten years old by tn,
French Indians. She Is now upwards
of fifty;f has an Indian husband anC
several children. Her name is MARY
Harris. She still remembers that they
used to be very religious in New Eng
land and wonders how the white mer
can be so wicked as she has seen then
in these woods.n Her husband, "Eagl,
Feather" brought home another whit,
woman as q wife, whom Mary called
the NNewcomer.p Jealousies arose anC
finally Eagle Feather was found will
his head split open and the tomahawl
remaining In his skull: but the. New
conner had fed. She was overtaker
and brought back and was killed BY
the Indians December 26, 1851, while
Gist was in the White Woman's town,
The place where she was captured wa:
afterwards called Newcomers town, >
Tuscarawas county.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE STATE.
Under the Treaty of Paris, 1888, the
United States claimed all the territory
northwest of the Ohio to the Mississ
ippi; but this claim was denied by
Great Britain, and only relinquished in
1896. But Notwithstanding the condi.
tion of affairs, the United States Com.
missioners, George Rogers Clarke
Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, con-
cluded treaty with the Delaware,
Wyandot, Ottawa and Chippewa
nations on January 2l, 1885, at Fort
Mcintosh. One provision of the treaty
was that if any citizen of the United
States, or any other person, not being
an Indian, should settle on certain
lands specified, such person would for
felt the protection of the United States
and the Indians might punish him as
they pleased. Col. Harmar was then
ordered to dispossess all settlers within
the bounds of the Northwest Territory,
and he delegated Ensign John Arm
strong, with party of men, March 20,
1855, ITO proceed as far down as OPP
posite Wheeling and dispossess the said
settIers.n The Ensign returned April
Ia and submitted q detailed report of
his doings in the interim. Z
From this report and from other
documents and letters filed in the
Department of State at Washington, it
appears that there were many white
settlers in the State. previous to the
alleged first settlement at Marietta in
17SS. 1t appears that the salt springs
in Weathersfield township, Trumbull
county, Ohio, were known to the Eng
lish as early as 1854; that during the
Revolutionary war settlers from Fort
Pitt located and lived there ''in peace
and security, titled the land and made
salt which they sold to the Moravian
Indians" But they were driven from
their homes by Ensign Armstrong.
From the data furnished by Ensign
Armstrong In his report, it is gathered
that there were settlers onithe Little
Beaver river, one family in Columbiana'
four miles from there in
the same county were three families
living in sheds; at Yellow creek, near
the present Wellsville, Columbiana
county, he dispossessed two families
and destroyed their buildings. In JEFF
ferson county, between Yellow creek
and Mingo bottom or "Old Town"
three miles below Steubenville, he
found eight families, mostly tenants Of
1 man named Ross, Whose language
was such that he conceived him to be a
dangerous character and sent him
under guard to Wheeling. AT Norris
Town. s0-palled, eleven miles further
down the river, were forty men with
arms, which they were compelled to lay
down and also to vacate their premises.
At Haglin's, or Mercer's town, further
down the river, he found little settle
ment which had already become so
and thriving as to possess
Two Justices of the Peace (?) named
Charles Norris and John Carpenter,
who had been elected by the people and
were exercising their magisterial func-
Hons in the interestsof their adherents.
0ne more family was found opposite
Wheeling.
The Ensign, in supplemental report,
said that sspeople were moving to the
unsettled county by forties and fiftiesn
and that from the best information he
could receive there were at the falls of
The Hawk k-Hawking''- Hook Hook
ing upward of three hundred families
ION the rivers Miame and Siota.n He
adds that Along the Ohio river there
was scarcely a bottom between Wheel
|Iaa and the Ecloto and Miami but what
had ss0ne Or more families living there
M
"a sTS5 four AmiIies had settled on
he OhiOat the mouth of the Scioto
river and, although the settlement had
1nly.a brief existence, 1t should ot'be
overlooked; nor yet should the settle
ments on the Miamis during the one or
two years preceding the occupation of
that country by John sCleves Symmes
and his associates, under their grank--
But the town of Marietta was probably
the first permanent settlement within
.he confines of what afterwards became
the State of Ohio,
Soon after the settlement of Marietta
IN 1889, other settlements were made;
but the Indians were dissatisfied at this
INVASION of their rights and privileges
ind, by the intrlguesof their late allies,
he British, savage and bloody war
,nsued, which delayed the further set
,lement of the State for a number of
years. The campaign of Gen. Harrison
against the Indiansin 1890 was only a
partial success. Attempts at pacific ar
were vain and Gen. Har-
mar was sent Into the Indian country
north of the present Cincinnati, with
quite strong force. to desolate their
villages and crops. In this he succeed
ID, but In two battles, October IL and
p, near the preseftcity of TT. Wayne,
Indiana, he was defeated with consid-